Water may be a blessing or a curse. Gardeners usually want abundant rain to nurture their plantings and generally have a back-up irrigation plan for dry spells. Providing the right amount of water for each plant is one of the keys to a gardener’s success. Working With the Water Cycle Just as leaves absorb carbon from the air, so roots absorb water from the soil. The water, and any chemicals or elements dissolved in it, may be stored in...
The Hot Dry Dog Days of Summer – It may seem, in the summer, like it is never raining enough and your lawn and garden need water daily. Before you drag hoses and sprinklers all over the yard, it’s important to know how much or how little water has fallen from the sky or been collected from your supplemental watering efforts. Installing a rain gauge is a quick and simple way to find out. It’s an easy way to measure the...
Planting and maintaining lovely gardens, while restricting the use of water, is made possible by using a few watering techniques and a choice of plants. The VCE created a brochure, in 2004 entitled Creating a Water-Wise Landscape and twenty years later it still contains some great advice.